Al Qaeda Targets Three Israeli Diplomats

Three Israeli diplomats have appeared on international terrorist organization Al-Qaeda’s hit list, published on the group’s website under the heading, “Our enemies.”

By Hana Levi Julian

First Publish: 5/18/2006, 1:28 PM / Last Update: 5/17/2006, 11:36 PM

Osama Bin Laden’s terrorist group uses its website to encourage members to make efforts to murder officials who appear on the hit list, according to a report in Yediot Acharonot.

Photos of the three diplomats - who were mistakenly listed as British - appear on the site, and Foreign Ministry officials believe they were taken from its own official website. Officials are taking the threat very seriously, intensifying security measures for its personnel and even removing photos of all its representatives from the ministry’s website.

Israeli and American embassies are considered the most secure diplomatic offices in the world. Nonetheless, there have been a number of successful terrorist attacks on official Israeli offices in the past 25 years.

A 1992 attack against the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires resulted in 29 deaths.
Israel’s Ambassador to Great Britain, Shlomo Argov, was also the target of an assassination attempt in 1982 which left him immobilized.

Increased security and a heightened alert at Israeli embassies and missions in high-risk regions have been activated, said Foreign Ministry sources.

The three Israeli officials join diplomats from the U.S., Great Britain and Australia on the Al-Qaeda website hit list.